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"Within ten minutes of Nintendo World 2011 opening up for day two, the line for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D had extended to a sixty minutes. Luckily we were in one of the first batches let in to the hall (having arrived two hours early for the show) and managed to get our hands on the game fairly quickly. But that doesn’t make writing this preview any easier.

It’s difficult to write this preview not just because the demo is quite short given that Zelda games can span dozens of hours, but also because given that it’s a remake there’s not a lot that is particularly new, and the stuff that is new is so intertwined with the stuff that is old. For that reason I’ll keep this preview short, and try to focus on what’s completely different about the game.

Ocarina of Time 3D is not a graphical stunner. It’s miles ahead of the original game, and you will be impressed when you lay your eyes on it for first time, but had I spent more time playing the game in 2D the updated art wouldn’t have had that much of a lasting impact. But this is more of a sign of Kid Icarus: Uprising and Resident Evil: Revelations looking amazing rather than Ocarina of Time looking bad. It’s very pretty, but just didn’t captivate me as much as those other games.

This is probably irrelevant though because the 3D effects add a lot to the experience anyways. Kokiri village really pops out at you with the sense of depth and while the effects seemed more susceptible to subtle movements (this could have been my imagination though) they definitely weren’t the most difficult to work with. Given that the demo was only in a small part of the game though there weren’t enough instances where the advantages of 3D were hugely noticeable like they were in Kid Icarus.

What shocked me the most was the controls. No, not the regular controls. They’re fairly standard. But the aiming controls. You can aim with the analog stick, but when you go into the first-person view (and this includes when you’re using a slingshot or a similar weapon) you can actually aim your shot by physically moving the 3DS. So, when I was ridding the Great Deku Tree of Skullwalltulas I raised the 3DS upwards on about a seventy-five degree angle towards where I imagined the enemies would be in the real world and started firing. It was a bizarre sensation.

But did it work well? Sort of. It was satisfying. But I had a lot of problems with losing the 3D effect because of all the movement. This may have been because the 3DS was tethered and made it more difficult to move the device properly, but I imagine the 3D would have to be disabled completely unless you want to deal with a blurry screen in the middle of a tense situation. Nevertheless, it made me smile, and I think that makes it worthwhile in itself. It’s easy to get caught up in the technical side of software, but when a simple action can just make you physically smile I think that’s a lot more powerful.

By this point you may be a little confused. Did I like the game? Yep. Was it the best game at the show? Nope. At least, not for me. I suspect hardcore Zelda fans would have loved it, but I would still have to place Kid Icarus as the game of the show. Ocarina of Time definitely comes in at a solid second though. It may have been difficult to appreciate the 3DS-specific features in the environment of the show floor, but I left the booth smiling, and that’s hard to complain about."

I just came buckets all over my screen. If only that was true. But knowing Nintendo, they probably made it easier to solve because so many people hate that temple. Yet I found it the perfect difficulty.

I just came buckets all over my screen. If only that was true. But knowing Nintendo, they probably made it easier to solve because so many people hate that temple. Yet I found it the perfect difficulty.

Click to expand...

Seeing how it was a remake and not a port(as in altering the game so it can be played on the 3DS),
I thought they would add more things, for example, a less annoying Navi?

I just came buckets all over my screen. If only that was true. But knowing Nintendo, they probably made it easier to solve because so many people hate that temple. Yet I found it the perfect difficulty.

Click to expand...

Seeing how it was a remake and not a port(as in altering the game so it can be played on the 3DS),
I thought they would add more things.

Click to expand...

I want them to add more things since the 3DS carts are high capacity, and the 3DS is more powerful than the N64. Hopefully, if anything, they leave the actual content as is. If they defile the experience, I'll be pretty mad. If they have a Master Quest version on the OoT cart too though, I would be pretty happy. That's doubtful though.